“Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) wrapped up Friday, and it will be remembered as the largest gathering to date. How big? 9,000 industry professionals participated in the conference—that’s a 40 percent increase over the 2013 event. About 1,100 American breweries were represented in this pool of attendees.

BrewExpo America also continued its growth and remains the largest trade show of its kind, with 490 exhibitors in 2014.

To wrap up the week, 2,700 brewery representatives and select members of the trade gathered at the Hyatt Regency to celebrate the 10th World Beer Cup®. They enjoyed an array of craft beer and food pairings at the Award Ceremony and Reception, where 281

10th Annual World Beer Cup, Denver CO

World Beer Cup awards were presented in one of the largest commercial beer competitions on record.

If you’ve yet to attend one of the CBC’s and are in the industry in some way, I highly recommend you plan on participating. Regardless of where you are in the greater pro beer community, there are connections and friendships to be made, educational seminars to take advantage of, and an overall camaraderie that is like no other on the planet.